Beasley Cruises to NJMP Win

August 30, 2015
Sam Beasley

Millville, NJ – A flag-to-flag victory from Sam Beasley at New Jersey Motorsports Park continued his dominating season and sealed his F2000 Series Championship title with three races to go with another major points haul in round 11 of the season. Sam Chastain scored his best-yet F2000 finish with a second place drive for Chastain Motorsports, while Steve Bamford completed the podium. Eric Filgueiras finished fourth, storming through the pack after starting last.

“The car has been great all year, I can’t thank the team enough,” said Beasley, who also reset both qualifying and track records for F2000 on Saturday, which had stood since 2008. Beasley's best race lap clocked in at 1:17.360, while his pole time was 1:16.507.

While Beasley led from the start, his closest challenger Trent Walko, went off and on in turn two, eventually retiring the car for his first DNF in what has been a consistent and improving year.

A few laps later, the full course caution flags came out for a stranded John McCusker, who failed to finish in the No. 01 Dotworks Racing Van Diemen after a strong qualifying effort with a fourth place starting spot.

The restart continued the action trend, with David Grant and Chastain battling for second place in turn one. Grant’s Polestar Spectrum would go off and on too, dropping him well down the order, with the No. 29 car eventually finishing seventh.

While all this was happening, Spencer Racing’s Filgueiras put on an impressive show dicing through the field. The No. 22 failed to make qualifying with a fuel system issue, forcing the Van Diemen to start from the back of the pack.

Filgueiras passed car after car, eventually settling into fourth place and looking high and low on Bamford for the last five laps, unable to find a way to grab that final podium position.

“I didn’t know where Eric came from,” said Bamford, who won the Masters Class in the No. 7 Citation from Rice Race Prep. “All of a sudden I could see him in my mirrors. I had a bit more speed than him, he could have made a couple of attempts on me but was smart and didn’t. Both Sams ran a great race.”

While Filgueiras fought Bamford for third, it was Quinlan Lall in another battle. Lall completed the top five for Momentum Motorsports in the No. 1 Van Diemen, despite a late race challenge from Austin McCusker in the Dotworks Racing RFR.

Grant's Polestar entry was seventh, while Dave Weitzenhof and Brandon Dixon were eighth and ninth, respectively, second and third in the Masters Class, making it three Citations in the class on the podium.

Mauro Fauza scored his best finish of the year with a tenth place in the No. 55 Van Diemen, now part of the Momentum Motorsports stable alongside Lall.

Full results are available on www.F2000Series.com under the Results tab.

The F2000 Championship Series weekend continues from New Jersey Motorsports Park with round 12 of the season scheduled for Sunday afternoon.

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